Learning To Fight
by thatgeekygrrl
Summary: What happens when you realize someone's stopped fighting for you. Do you let it go, or do you be brave and learn to fight too? Eventual Naomi/Emily, AU, inspired by Episode 9 previews.


**Spoilers: **None really; it's an AU of episode 9, even though it hasn't aired.  
**Disclaimer:** I so don't own this show, but I would give up my first born to own it! But since I'm pretty sure I'm not ever having kids so the point is moot.  
**A/N: **So I'm totally working on this massive future!fic for Skins, which is Naomily focused to, but in the middle of writing it, this popped into my head. It'll probably go on 10 or 15 chapters, and it's chalked full of angst, cause that's all I know how to write! : ) Anywho, this is semi-based on the previews of Episode 9, but it's a massive AU. If this is what happens on the show, I don't know if I can keep watching it. Also, part 2 of the prologue should be up tomorrow! Hope you like it and please review.  
**Oh and special A/N!: **A really huge thanks to my beta, Hac16, who both encouraged me to write this in the first place and to post it! You are the greatest!!!

_Prologue, Part 1_

"I did sleep with JJ," the redhead whispered, so softly Naomi couldn't be sure of what she'd heard.

"What?"

"I said I did sleep with JJ." The admission sucked the very breathe out of the blonde. Her legs turned to jelly, and she found herself slumping onto the table behind.

"No. No! That's a lie Emily!"

But the look of guilt in the twin's eyes held all the admission of guilt to know that it was true.

"Why," the blonde meekly asked. Emily knew there was a reason why she had slept with the boy, but witnessing the defeated, crushed look of Naomi killed any explanation that the redhead could give. As each tense moment passed, the feelings of betrayal and hurt festered in the blonde.

"You know what, I really don't want to know." Emily knew she should say something, but each time she opened her mouth to speak, the words seemed to abandon her. The blonde's next words would knock any hope of speaking out of her, though.

"Fuck you," Naomi spoke angrily "You're evil and manipulative and no better than you're sister. You spent all this time making me feel like shit for not wanting to be with you, yet you're going around fucking anything that will ask you politely. That's pathetic." _What, _Emily asked internally. She couldn't register the other girl's words, didn't get where they were coming from. Yes, she'd made a mistake, but she didn't deserve this.

"It wasn't like that… I was just trying to help," she weakly settled on.

"Right. Good little Emily, always trying to help the helpless. Making poor lonely Naomi to feel wanted. Giving awkward little JJ a shot at being normal. You're so fucking selfless," spewed the taller bitterly. "You get off on it, don't you—the feeling of being needed. Cause your bitch of a sister and your family couldn't give a damn, so you're just out there saving the world. Did you ever consider that maybe we don't need saving, least of all by you."

"Fuck you," were the only words Emily could find to say.

"You already did, and it turns out you were fucking half the town too." The statement felt like a knife in the gut to the shorter girl, and the pain it inflicted nearly doubled her over. As she stood before Naomi, she couldn't recognize the girl. How had things soured so quickly, so viciously? Was this real or just a nightmare?

"Don't ever come near me again."

In that moment, Emily knew this is what drowning must have felt like. She felt like someone was literally crushing her heart through her chest, breathing only in short gasps, throat burning. As she stumbled into the hallway, the ability to stand, let alone walk, failed her. She crouched by a locker, trying to cling to it, searching for anything that could help her gather a footing again, but as the room began to spin, she realized there was no anchor to be had. Maybe she really was dying.

Black spots began to cloud her vision, and for a moment, she made peace with the fact that this could be the end. And then… a hand found its way to her shoulder. The touch seemed familiar, yet foreign, and the struggle to place the grip seemed useless.

"Em, what are you goin on about?" The question brought forth a sharp _crack!_ in the girl's mind, and with it, she felt something shift. If she was dying before, this must be what it felt like to be reborn. Something hot and black filled her veins and the sudden pounding in her ears felt like a percussion band in her head. The hall silenced for a moment, the sounds of tears and gasps suddenly escaping it, as if placed in a vacuum.

_Thwack!_ A shrill cry rang out from the stranger as she cradled her head.

"What the fuck was that for," Katie exclaimed through newly forming tears. "I just got fucking stitches!"

As Katie looked into her twin's eyes, a cold shiver ran down her spine. There was something there, something dark the girl had never witnessed in her sister. It frightened her.

"You're an evil, conniving bitch," Emily spoke simply. "And as far as I'm concerned, we are no longer sisters." And with the declaration, Emily left the school, leaving a confused Katie behind.

* * *

The house reeked of smoke and sex. She normally hated these things, but she wanted to get fucked up, and there was no better place to do that than an after-prom party. She'd lost track of how much she'd drank over ages ago and the cocktail of drugs she'd taken had blurred the room into a pleasant fuzz. Emily could feel the pain of the night ebb just a bit, and for a second, she thought maybe everything could be okay. Then she saw her. A blonde angel in the corner, huddled closely with some bloke she recognized from their politics class. It was the laugh that caused her heart to cease again; Naomi just looked so damn happy, so unaffected. And as she saw the boy lean in and capture the girl's lips, something shifted again within the redhead.

_Whore._

Abandoning the room, Emily stumbled throughout the house, finally settling on an empty room. Bottles laid strewn across the floor, and the barely burning ends of a spliff indicated that a prior group had only recently left. Emily searched absently for somewhere to settle, but the previously hazed edges of the world had blurred into something unrecognizable. _Whore. _It was such a curious word, she thought as she landed on the ground. And as the blur of the room finally faded to darkness, Emily hazarded the thought that maybe Naomi was right. Maybe she deserved this hell.


End file.
